POS for a housewares retail outlet

May 11, 2012 3:33 AM

Best POS/inventory management for a shop selling a mixture of unbarcoded and barcoded items (i.e. some loose stuff) and wishing to monitor stock levels, produce meaningful reports. Can't decide between Mac/Windows/Cloud...

I find out today if I am to be the owner of a thriving small retail business. Exciting times. But I want to use the right POS.

I've worked in retail before and the shop had a computerised POS system which I suppose was linked to "the cloud" (in that we connected to it via SSL and everything was fetched and sent to the server at head office).

This system kept track of inventory levels, could dispaly profit margins, could process returns, control the cash drawer, debit card reader, receipt printer and print price labels using the label printer amongst other things. It wasn't perfect (it was ugly for one and not controllable with a mouse for another) but it worked fine.

This new business currently uses two standard cash registers which are linked to a computer in the backroom. This computer can apparently pull of some basic stats like sales category reporting, but I think it's pretty limited. I don't think stock levels are tracked. I don't think POs can be generated or sent automatically.

I'm tempted by VENDHQ because it seems fast and powerful with offline capability and would work on a Mac but I'm wondering if either a native Windows app or an upgraded cash register (perhaps with touch screen) linked to a computer as now would be better.

Any tips very welcome, especially about how to manage the non-barcoded loose products (like screws, lengths of timber etc).

THANKS

posted by dance to work & money (5 answers total)

I've never used this, but heard a decent review from an acquaintance.

Checkout
posted by purephase at 5:37 AM on May 11, 2012

The bike shop I work at uses MerchantOS, a cloud-based system that's quite nice and has a lot of reporting capability. Has really strong inventory search/categorization too.
posted by svdodge at 6:50 AM on May 11, 2012

We use Intuit's POS and it seems to work well. You have to pay for the Pro upgrade to do PO's from the POS. It links nicely with Quickbooks.

YMMV.
posted by humboldt32 at 9:26 AM on May 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

Seconding Intuit/Quickbooks.
posted by ob1quixote at 12:13 PM on May 11, 2012

Intuit POS doesn't seem to be available in the UK. But thanks!
posted by dance at 1:00 PM on May 17, 2012